This new historical souvenir token (5Guineas) features the image of George II the King of Great Britain.The token was created to commemorate his reign and it is a nice addition to any collection.Ideal for display or LARP and Reanactment. 

Historical Souvenir Token 37 mm 25,8 g Bronze like pictured.

George II (George Augustus; German: Georg August; 30 October / 9 November 1683[a] – 25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empirefrom 11 June 1727 (O.S.) until his death in 1760.

Born and brought up in northern Germany, George is the most recent British monarch born outside Great Britain. The Act of Settlement 1701and the Acts of Union 1707 positioned his grandmother Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant descendants to inherit the British throne. George married Princess Caroline of Ansbach, with whom he had eight children. After the deaths of George's grandmother and Anne, Queen of Great Britain, George's father, the Elector of Hanover, ascended the British throne as George I in 1714. In the first years of his father's reign as king, Prince George was associated with opposition politicians until they rejoined the governing party.

As king from 1727, George exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by the Parliament of Great Britain. As elector he spent twelve summers in Hanover, where he had more direct control over government policy. He had a difficult relationship with his eldest son, Frederick, who supported the parliamentary opposition. During the War of the Austrian Succession, George participated at the Battle of Dettingen, and thus became the most recent British monarch to lead an army in battle. Supporters of the Catholic claimant to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart, led by James's son, attempted and failed to depose George in the last of the Jacobite rebellions in 1745. Prince Frederick died suddenly in 1751, before his father, and George was succeeded by Frederick's eldest son, George III.

For two centuries after George II's death, historians tended to view him with disdain, concentrating on his mistresses, short temper, and boorishness. Since then, reassessment of his legacy has led scholars to conclude that he exercised more influence in foreign policy and military appointments than previously thought.

Quarrel with the KingeditLondon, c. 1710Portrait by Kneller, 1716George and his father sailed for England from The Hague on 16/27 September 1714 and arrived at Greenwich two days later.[23] The following day, they formally entered London in a ceremonial procession.[24] George was given the title of Prince of Wales. Caroline followed her husband to Britain in October with their daughters, while Frederick remained in Hanover to be brought up by private tutors.[25] London was like nothing George had seen before; it was 50 times larger than Hanover,[b] and the crowd was estimated at up to one and a half million spectators.[27] George courted popularity with voluble expressions of praise for the English, and claimed that he had no drop of blood that was not English.[28]

In July 1716, the King returned to Hanover for six months, and George was given limited powers, as "Guardian and Lieutenant of the Realm", to govern in his father's absence.[29] He made a royal progress through Chichester, Havant, Portsmouth, and Guildford in southern England.[30] Spectators were allowed to see him dine in public at Hampton Court Palace.[31] An attempt on his life at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in which one person was shot dead before the assailant was brought under control, boosted his high public profile.[32]

The King distrusted or was jealous of George's popularity, which contributed to the development of a poor relationship between them.[33] The birth in 1717 of George's second son, George William, proved to be a catalyst for a family quarrel; the King, supposedly following custom, appointed Lord Chamberlain Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, as one of the baptismalsponsors of the child. The King was angered when George, who disliked Newcastle, verbally insulted the Duke at the christening, which the Duke misunderstood as a challenge to a duel.[c]George and Caroline were temporarily confined to their apartments on the order of the King, who subsequently banished his son from St James's Palace, the King's residence.[35] The Prince and Princess of Wales left court, but their children remained in the care of the King.[36]

George and Caroline missed their children, and were desperate to see them. On one occasion, they secretly visited the palace without the approval of the King; Caroline fainted and George "cried like a child".[37] The King partially relented and permitted them to visit once a week, though he later allowed Caroline unconditional access.[38]In February 1718, Prince George William died aged only three months, with his father by his side.[39]

Political oppositioneditBanned from the palace and shunned by his own father, the Prince of Wales was identified for the next several years with opposition to George I's policies,[40] which included measures designed to increase religious freedom in Great Britain and expand Hanover's German territories at the expense of Sweden.[41] His new London residence, Leicester House, became a frequent meeting place for his father's political opponents, including Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Townshend, who had left the government in 1717.[42]

The King visited Hanover again from May to November 1719. Instead of appointing George to the guardianship, he established a regency council.[43] In 1720, Walpole encouraged the King and his son to reconcile, for the sake of public unity, which they did half-heartedly.[44] Walpole and Townshend returned to political office, and rejoined the ministry.[45] George was soon disillusioned with the terms of the reconciliation; his three daughters who were in the care of the King were not returned and he was still barred from becoming regent during the King's absences.[46] He came to believe that Walpole had tricked him into the rapprochement as part of a scheme to regain power. Over the next few years, he and Caroline lived quietly, avoiding overt political activity. They had three more children: William, Mary, and Louisa, who were brought up at Leicester House and Richmond Lodge, George's summer residence.[47]

In 1721, the economic disaster of the South Sea Bubble allowed Walpole to rise to the pinnacle of government.[48] Walpole and his Whig Party were dominant in politics, as the King feared that the Tories would not support the succession laid down in the Act of Settlement.[49] The power of the Whigs was so great that the Tories would not hold power for another half-century.